In the following review of The Blue Swallows, Hecht declares Nemerov's poetry to be worthy of a major literary award.

“small Moment”

Isaiah 54:7

Death is serious, or else all things are serious except death. A player who dies automatically disqualifies for the finals. If there were no death nothing could be taken seriously, not truth, not beauty, but that is not a situation which we need to face. Men invented the gods, but they discovered death; therefore, although the skull is said to grin, the flesh is serious, and frowns, for the world is not a stage. And the gay spirit, gone through wisdom to absurdity, welcomes the light that shudders in the leaves in all weathers and at any season since love, the pure...